Ithaca’s Z95.5 Seeks Morning Co-Host / PD

Updated 6/30 — ITHACA — ROI Broadcasting’s Z95.5 (WFIZ) is looking for a new morning co-host and Program Director, according to a job announcement posted earlier this week. According to station management, current PD/morning co-host Corey is getting ready to move onto his next opportunity.

Highly rated Z95.5 in Ithaca is looking for our next great PD and morning co-host. CHR Experience required… This is a great company away from the big corporate chains in a strong college market. Send your resume and aircheck via email to dan@lundradio.com and/or scowley@z955.net. No phone calls. EOE

We can’t resist questioning the “highly rated” part of the ad, since Arbitron dropped Ithaca/Cortland following the Fall 2009 survey. Granted, it’s remarkable that WFIZ ranked second (Persons 12+) in the Spring 2009 book, its first full survey against Saga’s cluster of firmly-entrenched heritage formats. The CHR station remained in the top three for that final Fall 2009 book, but there haven’t been any new numbers since.

Arbitron typically doesn’t explain decisions to drop or embargo markets. But earlier this month, a report on Radio-Info.com concluded that there simply weren’t enough subscribers to the Ithaca/Cortland book, after the dominant Saga cluster ended its subscription. The conclusion came after Arbitron ended its surveys in several other markets where similar conditions (dubbed “the Saga effect” by Radio-Info) exist. Arbitron had ranked Ithaca/Cortland as market #285 as of 2008.

Updated 6/30: While we haven’t heard from Corey yet about his future plans, we did hear from GM Sean Cowley, who spotted this story on Wednesday afternoon and writes, “Corey is leaving on his own terms. I just took over my position here a few weeks ago, and was not looking to make that change with the station. That being said, I will leave it up to Corey if he would like to offer info on what his future holds.”

Our thanks to Sean for responding to our story… and if the name sounds familiar, yes, he’s the same Sean Cowley who was the Director of Sales for the former Regent Broadcasting cluster in Utica-Rome several years ago. (And on that note, our congratulations to Sean on his new position!)

Although Corey wasn’t one of the original “ZJ’s” in 2008, he joined the lineup very soon after the launch, as “Corey @ Night,” making his first appearance on CNYRadio.com in a Picture of the Week we ran that November. At the end of 2009, the last time Z95.5 was searching for a PD/morning host, C0rey @ Night was promoted to PD while “Birdman” was brought on-board for mornings. But it wasn’t long before Birdman flew the coop, and Corey found himself dropping “@ Night” from his name to take over mornings.